The emerging European influence on international metering type testing

For electricity meters, and in particular, watt-hour only meters, the European directive on measuring instruments (or ldquoMIDrdquo) represents a different spin on setting the performance and safety requirements for those meters. Another European group, the OIML (international organization for legal metrology) has published one document (D11) discussing recommendations for legislation to meet the MID. An OIML technical committee is drafting the recommendation (IR46) that would give regulatory bodies an easily-adoptable set of requirements and tests to meet the needs of the MID. This paper examines the imminent European legislation for electricity meters (measuring instruments), with a comparison of the stated goals versus those pursued in the North American market via the ANSI C12 performance standards. Included are the MID, the OIML publications D11 and IR46, the mutual acceptance agreement (or MAA) and what all of those mean for manufacturers producing typical ANSI C12 meters.